Back in 2015, I was studying abroad in Cape Town, South Africa. While I was there, my grandma and mom made a trip to come and visit. During their stay we went and did so many things that I’ll remember as long as I live, but one day was dedicated totally to climbing Table Mountain. We chose to hike via Platteklip Gorge, an “easy” trail that is about three kilometers of endless switchbacks of steps. 

For three very inexperienced hikers, we very much underestimated the difficulty of the trail. And we were under-prepared. We easily ran out of water about a quarter-way into the hike. As we took frequent breaks– did I mention it was all steps?– we were keeping pace with a man that said he was hiking with his friends, but they all left him behind.

I grew up in a Christian school all the way up through the fifth grade. At North Shore Christian School, every morning we would stand, say the pledge of allegiance, sing “God Bless America,” pledge allegiance to the Christian flag, and say the school’s Bible verse, Proverbs 3:5-6. I think in many ways, that was one of the first ever verses I ever burned into my young memory.

Trust in the Lord with all your heart. For six years of my life, that was how I started my school day. What a foundation and a truth to stake a young life to!

Like most toddlers, my kids love to wake up in the morning and watch a little television before they start their day. The problem is, if Sam or I don’t shut it off after a couple of episodes, those kids will waste their whole day in front of the thing, watching movie after movie and show after show. And the more they watch before being disconnected, the more off their behavior is when the television finally does turn off.

We’re talking tantrums, crying, and whining galore. But even on the best day; when they happily agree to turn off the TV, they need encouragement on what to do. Every day, the suggestions are the same: play a game, do a project/craft, play with this toy, read a book, go outside… for some reason, they can’t formulate for themselves something they can do once the screen goes dark.

My daughter got a Pretty, Pretty Princess game for Christmas this year. The premise is simple, there is a game board, a spinner, and a bowl full of different color jewelry in the middle. The goal is to go around the game board and gather all the pieces of jewelry in your color: necklace, bracelet, ring, a pair of earrings, and a crown. The first one to have all their jewelry wins.

Me and my husband have played this game with her about two dozen times since she got it, and no exaggeration: she wins every time. She loves it. Dripping in jewelry, her smile is as big as a billboard when she realizes she won; she is the pretty, pretty princess.

What does it mean to be completely devoted to someone or something? 

Even marriages have the “honeymoon phase,” where the couple is totally enamored with each other. Everything is new, and precious, and exhilarating. There’s something similar when you become new parents– “the bubble” as it’s now affectionately called. Where you bring that child home and they are so agreeable, so cute, so new and wonderful, that the world just feels novel and sweet.

There are days, as a parent, that your kids will test you. They will fight each other like they’re trying to draw blood. They will disobey and defy you in ways that will knock you off your feet. And they’ll act out in ways that makes me think at least, “I was NEVER like this as a child.” 

And maybe I wasn’t, but I’m sure in other ways, I was. I can remember plenty of times I got in trouble for talking back, being mean to my brother, or being disrespectful. I can remember plenty of times that I slammed my door as a teen, thinking that would show my parents how angry I was. And I know that my parents still loved me through it, but now I know how they must have felt on the other side of that door.

Eastern Long Island has a few big apple orchards. Every autumn, they have u-pick harvest festivals, where you can go in and pick bushels of apples of all different kinds. Granny smith, pink ladies, macintosh, golden, red delicious. You name it, there are rows and rows of them.

When I was younger, it always used to bother me how many apples were on the ground. It felt wasteful. All these apples on the floor, rotting or going to the bugs. What use is that?

There is one thing I remember from the birth of my children; my firstborn especially. I remember the way that little hospital room became this warmly lit, peaceful, little bubble. The moments where it was just me, the baby, and her dad, felt the most safe and golden I have ever felt.

We looked at her until our eyes started crossing and the lids felt heavy. We held her and marveled at her perfection. We kissed her and let her wrap her whole hand around our one finger. We sang to her and prayed with her and spoke softly about how beautiful she was. How we promised to be the kind of parents who taught her about Jesus and cherished her soul every day of her life.

Could you imagine being in the middle of a work shift and being confronted by an angel?

The shepherds were out in their fields, watching the sheep, pulling the night shift. I can’t imagine the job was all that riveting. After all, the old bedtime hack is to count sheep, isn’t it?

Currently, as I write this, my one-year-old is “ballerina dancing” on the coffee table to the classical music playing in the room. Her hands are above her head, and she’s making clumsy, wobbly spins with a big, goofy grin. The living room is a mess, a pot of chili is cooling on the kitchen counter from dinner waiting for someone to put it away, and this mama is ready for bedtime.

Nothing is wrong. The kids aren’t misbehaving– except that I’d like the toddler to dance on the floor, not the coffee table– and there is no pressing things that have to be completed in the next hour, but I feel overwhelmed. And a part of me wonders: I wonder if Mary felt this way?

November is all about giving thanks. We love to do our 30 days of thankful posts on Facebook. We remember thankfulness at church services leading up to the holidays; we go around the table while we’re all digging in to the Thanksgiving meal, saying what we’re most thankful for this year.

And the day after?

It’s great to have a day dedicated to being thankful and remembering all the ways God has blessed us, even better to recognize it all year round, but it’s easy to slip back into habits of discontent.

We have so many things to be thankful for that we often don’t reflect on. So many things that it doesn’t even occur to us to be grateful for, but all things that God has given us, and all equally deserving to give Him praise for.

For our homes– the very fact that we have one. Whether we rent, or pay a mortgage, or live with our parents. Thank you, God, for allowing us a space somewhere in this world where we can be safe; that we can make our own. Thank you for a place to go every day, when our work is done, that we can rest and find peace in. Thank you for all the creature comforts of that home: the running water, the microwave, the comfy couch, the clean sheets, and the lights that come on when we flip the switch. That home is a reflection of us, so we thank you for the safety of that dwelling place, and the privilege to make it ours.

Does a bird reject its wings, wishing to take flight in any other way than the way it was designed to? Does a fish attempt to live underwater without its gills, breathing in some other way that allows it to work against God’s created intention for it? Does an elephant rebel against its being an elephant, trying to be a housecat? 

No. All creation lives in absolute submission to the Lord. In Matthew 6, we know Jesus talks about how the sparrow doesn’t fret over where it will be fed. The lilies don’t struggle against blooming. They don’t worry over being a thistle or a rose. All creation embraces their place in God’s creation.

An older gentleman was featured on Humans of New York’s Facebook page this week. He shared his story of running for New York City Council ten years ago in Eastern Queens. He speaks about how even just ten years ago, in a post-9/11 city the people of his community were legally abused because they lacked political power at even the lowest levels. Most were not even voters.

This man’s community was, more specifically, South Asian Muslims.

Many good men and women have gone to prison for the sake of the Gospel. They’ve been captured and persecuted for spreading it, honoring it, and defending it. Some wrote from those prisons like Paul or John Bunyan. Some strengthened the faith of those around them, the way we saw Lady Jane Grey do last week while she awaited her execution from isolated detention.

But imagine– instead of a jail cell with a cot, a chamber pot, and a desk with some paper– you were chained to a bench. And your hands constantly hovered before a massive oar on board a galley ship. Imagine instead of being a prisoner, you were a slave, forced to row military ships when the wind was not in favor of the sails. This is how John Knox lived for nineteen months in the late 1540s, after he was captured by the French when they took back Scotland’s St. Andrews Castle. The fortress that had become a safe haven for Protestants during the tumultuous period where Scotland hung in the balance between the Reformation that King Henry VIII had inadvertently given rise to, and the Roman Catholic church that constantly sought to regain a foothold there.

Imagine being told one day to attend a meeting at a secret location. You travel to the house where you were told to meet and all the major politicians of your time are there. They are kneeling, promising you fealty, and calling you the new ruler of England.

On July 9th, 1553, Lady Jane Grey found that her cousin, King Edward VI had died and that in his last will and testament, he had ordered the succession of the crown be changed– passing over Edward’s older half-sister Mary Tudor to name Lady Jane Grey as his heir to the throne. This was a role she neither anticipated nor campaigned for. In fact, she first protested the crown and when she did finally accept the role, she asked God to help her rule to His glory if it be His will that she reign.